The Business School have used the Edinburgh Award framework to support professional development in its MSc students. Summary Students starting any Master of Science (MSc) programme within the Business School will attend a session introducing them to their own ‘professional development journey’. Here students will identify different skills they want to develop over their master’s programme. Students can choose to sign up for an adapted Edinburgh Award to support their development. Within the Business School’s Award, students partake in a range of activities where reflection is essential. Among other activities, students make action plans for how to move closer to their ideal selves. Students are supported by a personal coach and attend input sessions, skills-sessions, and masterclasses where they have a chance to practice, develop, and reflect on specific skills they have identified. Students who partake are all extremely positive about the Award and the development they see in themselves. Contributing factors are likely to include the levels of support around both the initiative and reflection itself, as well as how much reflection is done with peers. Takeaways may include: Introduce students to the motivation and value of doing reflection from the beginning. The Edinburgh Award is a great place to allow student to focus on personal and professional development, and can be tailored and adapted with further support from the Employability Consultancy. Allowing students to reflect in groups allows them to support each other and gain value from other people’s responses. Location of practice: An Edinburgh Award offered by the Business School to its MSc students. Reflectors: MSc students from all programmes in the School. Around 120 students complete the Award per year. Facilitators: Student Development Team, Coaches, Careers Service, external speakers (industry and past students). Context: Students reflect on the development of three areas or skills from the Business School’s skills matrix, which match the School’s Graduate Attributes. Time commitment: The Business School have added significant levels of support above the core requirements of the Edinburgh Award and therefore the overall commitment is significant. Input sessions are 2 hours each and the first session is given and tailored to each of the different MSc programmes. Moreover, each student receives 2 hours of individual coaching. Context overview To support the students in the best possible way and prepare them for their professional lives after their masters programme, the Business School offers all students a chance to engage with their professional development journey. All students are introduced to the School’s skills matrix and asked to identify three areas they wish to develop during their time on the programme. Students can then choose to sign up for the Edinburgh Award, which will offer more support as well as recognition for their development, or they can work the skills independently. To complete this version of the Edinburgh Award, students have to: Select the skills the they want to develop Participate in 3 group sessions Have 2 coaching sessions Partake in skill sessions and masterclasses Keep a journal after input sessions Demonstrate impact and articulate their journey Moreover, students have the chance to be matched with a student from a different programme who is working on the same skills. The Student Development Team facilitate the introduction, but the ‘buddy system’ is voluntary and informal. The team is currently working on providing support for the initial conversation. Every week students receive a newsletter containing updates on skills sessions, masterclasses, and other opportunities for professional development. The skills sessions are open to all Business School MSc students. In contrast, the masterclasses are first offered to the award students working to improve the particular skills of that class and are then opened up to the rest of the MSc students. Introducing and implementing reflection Reflection happens at each stage of the initiative. At every step students are encouraged to ask themselves how they are doing, where they want to go, and how to get there. The initial input session is supported by a goal setting activity using Boyatzis’ Intentional Change Theory, where students are asked to imagine their ideal self and see what qualities that self has. The students must then reflect on where they are now; evaluating their strengths and challenges. With this evaluation students create an action plan on how to get to their ideal self. Once the action plan is set, students are continuously encouraged to step out of their comfort zone to experiment with and practice their skills in a safe space provided by the award framework and the Business School. Student then have a clear action plan on how to improve over the year. In the first coaching session the student’s plans are evaluated together with a coach through guided reflection. Additionally, in the session students reflect on why they want to develop their chosen skills and what success looks like to them. In the second input session, the reflections focus on progress and successes so far. Students use an atypical resource to do this. In groups of three, students each pick a card from the game Dixit. These cards contain dreamlike images and students will pick the card that best resonates with their journey and present their thoughts to the group, who ask explorative questions. For a breakdown of this reflection method see ‘Items for self-awareness’ in the Reflectors’ Toolkit (linked below). Students reacted differently to this activity; some found it extremely valuable, while others found it hard and saw little personal gain. However, all agreed that doing it with other people and hearing their stories and development was extremely valuable. Lastly, students are asked to keep a journal and submit entries after each of the input sessions. These have a loose form and are marked for completion. The more the students have reflected and structured their thoughts in these, the more straight forward their coaching sessions are as coaches use the reflections as a foundation for their session. Items for self-awareness (within the Reflectors’ Toolkit) Response to reflection: Students who have engaged with the Award are extremely positive. Some even report that the professional development journey has been the best part of their programme as it allows them to develop as well as focus on employability and communication skills. The reflection is at the heart of this development. The Student Development team have received feedback on the programme and are working towards supporting the ‘buddy system’. Some students found it challenging to begin the initial conversations. However the ‘buddy system’, like everything else, provides value to students who report that having the support of someone going through the same experience as themselves is extremely helpful when reflecting and seeking out development. Assessing reflection Reflection within the initiative is not assessed, but the development students see within themselves is directly a result of how much they have engaged with reflection. Students also report that their motivations for completing the reflections and skill sessions move away from receiving recognition and onto the motivation of developing themselves. This means that although some students do not complete the Award they still report gains from it. One likely reason the students do not struggle with reflection is the high levels of support, for example input sessions, buddies, and individual coaches. Given the support networks that are in place, assessment is not required to ensure quality – the quality is developed through feedback from other students and the coaches. Conclusion Developing extra levels of support around the Edinburgh Award, as seen in the Business School, is extremely beneficial for students’ development. Using Boyatzis’ Intentional Change Theory students are introduced to the value of having a personal vision and reflecting for development – both can help students to get closer to their ideal selves. This, the support from the Student Development team, and sharing reflections with peers are likely reasons for the levels of students’ engagement with the reflective practice. The Student Development Team is working on creating a similar version of the Edinburgh Award for undergraduate students. The main difference is that coaching sessions will be group-based and run by senior students who are trained as PALS (Peer-Assisted Learning Scheme) and are additionally trained and received support on coaching skills to become DevelopmentPALS. Moreover, these students are supported by accredited coaches in the Business School. The first pilot is in the first semester of the 2018/19 academic year. Further information: Flyer about the Edinburgh Award for Professional Development in the Business School (PDF) Key contacts: Rona Doig (Student Development Manager) This article was published on 2024-10-15
